La costruzione della devozione a sant’Antonio attraverso i sermoni del Tre e Quattrocento

The phenomena linked to saint Anthony of Padua has been the subject of many studies over the years. However, just a restricted number of studies has tried to go back to the roots of devotion to the saint during the centuries immediately following the canonization to see how it spread and developped. The paper aims to investigate the occurrence of a particular aspect of devotion to saint Anthony: the one seeing and preaching him as the holy maker of miracles and the saint of Padua. Passing through selected sermons dedicated to the saint during the medieval age the author highlights the chronological and devotional passage leading St. Anthony to be not only the learned preaching saint but also a more and more popular one, the same image still persisting in today mass culture.